Thursday, April 05, 2007

As part of my April A-Z blog challenge on all things mystical, here's the letter E..."Don’t be sad, Mommy. I believe you."It took a moment for the words to poke through Glory’s thoughts and assemble themselves in a recognizable order. "Believe me?""About the things you see."Glory stared at her, stunned. "H-how do you know about that?"--Excerpt from VISIONS

In VISIONS I hint at the fact that the child character, Jade, has some intuitive abilities. In part, she is an empath--one who can read and sense the emotions of others.

Empathic ability is a common trait, and many have this talent in one form or the other. Being an empath, however, is not the same as having sympathy. Anyone can feel for the situation or struggle of another. Sympathy is a form of understanding. An empath, on the other hand, actually picks up--immediately takes on--another's emotions. For instance, you might be sitting happily after a satisfying day, then have a friend call in a foul mood. A sympathetic soul would probably stop smiling, but would retain their sense of self as they tried to hear out or cheer up the friend. An empath will suddenly find that THEY are angry as well, as if the other person's feelings were contagious.

Some empaths can also pick up on what someone else thinks about them that are not said out loud. This can create as stressful situation if the thoughts are negative.

Such abilities, obviously, can cause problems for the empath. Taking on negative emotions can mean a tougher day, sure, but it also means tossing those feelings back at others. Perhaps then I should add this ability can cause problems for those AROUND the empath!

Empath's abilities can be controlled, by a conscious effort to examine the "out of nowhere" feelings and attempting to push them aside. Easier said than done, perhaps, but a skill that can be attuned with practice.